Well of Tears (Empath Book 3) (29 page)

Neyv coughed. She tried to talk. Little
bubbles of blood burst on her tiny lips. Quinn crushed the girls
hands in her own, sobs wracking her chest.

“I’m so sorry Neyv. I’ve let you down.”

Neyv shook her head, and smiled. Then, she
was gone.

“It’s my fault. I convinced her to help me. I
let her come up here.”

“It was her choice, Quinn.”

“She was too young to make a choice!”

“That’s what Sammah always told you, Quinn.
Did you ask her?”

Quinn sniffed. “Yes.”

“What did she choose?”

“She wanted to help.”

“Then she’s died doing something she
wanted
to do. For the first time in her life, she was
free.”

“She didn’t have to die. Your father
murdered
her. She did nothing to him!”

Quinn glanced at Shiver, and Eden got quickly
in her line of sight. “
No Quinn, don
’t.
If you take his life…”

“But he murdered her, Eden!”

“And you’ll be murdering him! The only
difference is you’ll be starting a war!”

“Because he’s a king? So he can murder my
people and get away with it? Because Neyv was nobody? It doesn’t
justify it, Eden!”

Eden was sick with shame. She was right.
Everything Quinn had ever said, about everything his father wanted
to do, was right. He grasped her wrists, trying not to hurt her,
trying to reason with her.

“It doesn’t make it right, Quinn. I just
don’t want you to be the one that gives him the excuse. We don’t
want another Empath War, Quinn.”

“There’s going to be a war.”

The two of them twisted around to Shiver. The
man’s face was still blank, but he shifted his eyes to them anyway.
They were distant, though his assertive voice did not match that
blank stare. “It doesn’t matter what she does to me. We will fight.
Pax wants Everfell. Even if…” his gaze drifted to Neyv. Eden hoped
beyond hope that even his iron-skinned father was feeling some
remorse at what he’d done to that girl. “Even if you aren’t all
bad, Sha’sek and Everfell can never live together. We can never
understand.”

“Understand what, father?”

“They’re not like us, Eden. They never were,
and they never will be. How can we live together?”

“I will show you how.”

Eden pulled Quinn to her feet. She came
without protest as he led her from the room. Eden wanted to get her
away then, from Everfell, from Shiver, from the corpse of the girl
and her father, and from everything that had represented Quinn’s
life up until that point—everything except one thing.

“What are you doing, Eden?”

“I’m taking you away.”

“
You can
’t. Your
father is back there.”

“He’s not my father anymore, Quinn.”

At hearing those words, Quinn tugged back at
him, forcing him to stop. “Eden, what do you mean?”

“I can’t agree with what he’s done in there.
I can’t agree with anything that man wants. He’ll kill you if you
stay, you know? And he’s not going to end it here. You’re not safe
here, Quinn. So we’re going.”

“We?”

Eden grabbed both of her hands. “Yes, we.
Together. I love you, Quinn. I always have. I always thought that I
needed to be Shiver’s son, because that’s what my family and peers
demanded of me. I struggled to be the man he wanted me to be. The
only person I never needed to pretend around, was you. Because you
always
saw
me, Quinn. I couldn’t hide around you even if I
had wanted to.”

Eden twisted one of her hands and placed it
against his heart. She remembered what this gesture meant, and what
it had felt like the first time he’
d done
it.

“Eden I can’t I…I promised you.”

“You promised
yourself
Quinn. I never
asked you to stop being yourself. I don’t ever want you to think
you have to be something else, just to please me. Be who you are.
What do you see?”

Quinn crushed herself against him. With the
easiest gesture she opened herself up to him. What she felt made
her want to collapse.

“Take me away, Eden. Be mine.”

He crushed his head into her hair, wrapping
his arms around tightly around her. “Only if you’ll be mine
first.”

“Your father will come looking for you.”

Eden looked behind them, back up to the
corridor. Shiver hadn’t followed.

“That man is as much my father as Sammah was
yours.”

Quinn searched all of him—his eyes, and his
heart, for any weakness in his conviction. There was none, but that
did not mean she wasn’t scared. She had never seen Eden like this.
He was single minded and certain, his decision unblemished by
self-doubt and fear.

“This won’t be the end of it, Eden. We can’t
just walk out of here. Everfell… Sha’sek...”

“It’s not your war, Quinn. If you stay here,
it’s just a matter of time before my father tries to hurt you, or
Pax sends his own men for you. I won’t let that happen.”

Quinn looked down, biting her lip. Was this
it? The first time she could truly choose freedom? She could run
from Pax, but would Eden be able to hide from his father, for the
rest of his life?

She was willing to try. Quinn took Eden’s
hand.

“Together, then.”

Dawn is a UK-based author
of fantasy and horror fiction, currently based in West Sussex. She
writes books for adults and teens, and is the author of the
upcoming
Empath
series, as well as the horror series
Great Bitten
, both available from Permuted Press. 

When Dawn isn't writing fiction,
she is usually found fixing computers (this sometimes includes more
than turning them off and on again). In her spare time she tends to
read too much, and obsesses over her geriatric cat. She would love
to go on more walks (but doesn't) and should cycle more (but hates
hills).

You
can connect with Dawn on social media at
http://www.facebook.com/dawnpeersauthor
and @dawnpeersauthor.